Sunday, September 18, 2016

Obama's Syrian Adventure - monumental screw-up

Beirut (AFP) - Syrian troops counterattacked against the Islamic State group around a key eastern airbase Sunday after a US-led coalition air strike killed scores of soldiers forcing a retreat, military sources said.

The Pentagon said that coalition pilots had believed they were hitting IS and had halted the raid as soon as Damascus ally Moscow informed commanders that army positions were coming under attack.

But Damascus reacted angrily to the deadly strike, which forced troops to pull back from two strategic hilltops overlooking the besieged airbase on the outskirts of the city of Deir Ezzor.

"The Syrian army has returned to the offensive," a military source told AFP on Sunday.

"After the American raids, it withdrew from several positions but now it has gone back on the attack."